01. Pump It Up02. Heart Of The City03. Lipstick Vogue04. Watching The Detectives / Help Me05. Riot Act (spin)06. No Particular Place To Go (spin)

Cash (spin)07. Cry, Cry, Cry

Happy (spin)08. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down09. High Fidelity10. 5ive Gears In Reverse11. King Horse

12. So Like Candy (spin - with a bit of You're No Good)13. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood (duet with a singer whose name I didn't quite catch, sounded like Marisol?, she sang mostly in Spanish)14. I've Been Wrong Before15. Accidents Will Happen (spin)

docinwestchester wrote:I'm hoping for a taper in LA, at least. There was a taper at last year's Wiltern shows, so there's a chance.

I'd say odds are very good for a recording from the same taper.

I'm blanking on exactly what Elvis said on the subject, but he acknowledged Steve's work with Vanessa Paradis and basically credited him with her participation in the show. She didn't do much on "Alison" besides sing the phrase "my aim is true" in French, but she had a better spotlight on "This Will Be Our Year."

Security must have fallen asleep, because there were two apparent stage crashers. One approached Elvis, and Katarina ran across the stage to escort her to the go-go cage. The other started dancing next to Vicki and Debbi Peterson (possibly tricking people in the back of the theater into thinking she was the third Bangle). Katarina kept an eye on her by dancing with her.

I think the only truly legitimate spins were "Riot Act," "Cash," "So Like Candy," and "Accidents Will Happen." Elvis overruled spins for "Stella Hurt" and "Tokyo Storm Warning," moving the wheel one spot to "No Particular Place To Go" and "Happy," respectively. (No big loss in either case. "Stella Hurt" was played at the same venue last year, and "Tokyo Storm Warning" was played at the end of the show without a spin.) The "Chelsea" spin was openly rigged in honor of a wheel spinner named Chelsea.

They played "Watching The Detectives" before the first spin despite "Detectives vs Hoover Factory" appearing on the wheel. I'd like to think they would have been required to play "Hoover Factory" if it had been spun, but it wasn't spun.

A woman was brought on stage to spin the wheel after "Please Please Me," but Elvis decided at that point to play "Quiet About Me." She remained onstage for a long time but never actually spun the wheel. When Elvis played "A Slow Drag With Josephine," he said it was her request, but I wasn't sure if he was serious about that.

Elvis Costello brought the Spinning Songbook back to the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles

Hand it to Elvis Costello: With his delightfully zany “Spectacular Spinning Songbook” conceit, the indefatigable British singer and songwriter has created a musical game show in which he not only gets to host but also cheat, and the audience often hopes he’ll do so.

On Tuesday, as he rolled the Spinning Songbook back into the Wiltern, wrapping up the Revolver Tour that had been at the same venue 11 months ago, Costello again brought audience members up to the stage throughout the two hour and 20 minute show to spin the big wheel.

The spinning wheel is a device he first introduced in 1986, and also used at a Wiltern show that year. On that wheel are 40 slots, mostly with names of songs, but with a few wild-card entries such as “Cash,” which allowed him to play a Johnny Cash tune of his choosing (“Cry, Cry, Cry”), and also the word “Happy,” which unleashed a handful of songs from his 1979 album “Get Happy” when it surfaced on another fan’s spin. (Nobody ever got the wheel to stop in the slot labeled “Imperial Chocolate,” which presumably would have led to a set from the “Imperial Bedroom” and “Blood & Chocolate” albums.)

There were a couple of times, however, when Costello slyly tipped the wheel after it stopped moving, bumping it forward or back to serve up a different song. For instance, toward the end of the evening, a woman who said her name was Chelsea gave it a spin, and Costello helped nudge it toward the “Chelsea” slot that naturally opened the door for him and the Imposters to rip into 1978’s “I Don’t Want to Go to Chelsea.”

He also nudged the wheel over to “No Particular Place to Go,” so he could play his radical revisioning of Chuck Berry’s rock classic as a waltz, but also so he could deliver a priceless anecdote from his role in PEN New England’s first award for song lyrics of literary excellence event in Boston. The group bestowed the honor on Berry and Leonard Cohen, and in his best impression of Cohen’s sub-basement bass voice, Costello quoted the Canadian poet-singer and songwriter’s confession at the proceedings earlier this year at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that “All of us are footnotes to the words of Chuck Berry.”

The Spinning Songbook gimmick was expanded this time around with an additional carny trick: “The Hammer of Songs,” in which one fan was given a large mallet to attempt to ring a bell at the top of a board marked with different categories, including “Songs of Sneer” and “The Hits of Tomorrow” (“songs so great,” Costello explained, “I haven’t even written them yet.”) In this case, the fan succeeded in ringing the bell, for which she won the right to choose any song title on the wheel.

It was all in good fun during an evening that celebrated spontaneity over the tightly programmed concert rituals we’ve become accustomed to over the years. The only downsides of an otherwise exceptionally upbeat and lively show were a sound mix that slowly progressed from congealed mess to annoyingly muted, and a curiously reluctant guest appearance during the final encore by Costello’s wife, jazz singer-pianist Diana Krall, who added Ramsey Lewis-ish chord flourishes during “What’s So Funny (‘Bout Peace Love and Understanding”), then did her best to refuse to join her husband and his mates for the final bow.

Vicki and Debbie Peterson, the two members of the Bangles who showed up to sing harmony on that tune, seemed to have a much easier time slipping into the spirit of the proceedings.

The Spinning Songbook is a perfect device for a musician and his band who are essentially human jukeboxes, and who prize the inspired musical moment over the programmed emotional response.

Costello has had the spinning wheel around for years now, but it makes for a great show. Fans can always hope that what goes around might come around once more.

For the past year, Elvis Costello has been challenging himself and fans with his Spectacular Spinning Songbook Tour. With his extensive catalog that includes over 30 studio albums, multiple live albums and appearances on many tribute albums, the London native has more than enough material to put to the test both his diehard fans and talented backing band, The Imposters.

Costello brings a wheel -- think Wheel of Fortune -- which features the names of everything from classics to covers. The singer will pluck a lucky fan from the audience to spin the wheel and whichever song the arrow ends up on, that's the one that will be played.

After getting the crowd going with "Pump It Up" and a few other tunes, Costello turned The Wiltern into his own bizarre fun house, casually inviting fans on-stage to spin the wheel, which determined the play-as-you-go set list.

The show's concept kept the audience on their toes, despite a number of them having seen this act at the same venue only a year earlier. Highlights from the wheel included covers of Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place To Go," the Nina Simone/Animals' track "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," and originals like "Accidents Will Happen" and "Riot Act."

Every night the wheel has a different mix of songs. Fans who spun it could kick back with either an adult beverage in the seated area on-stage, or could dance in a small cage on the far side. Many of the ladies who were plucked from the sold-out crowd did the latter.

Whenever the wheel stopped on a song, Costello and his band were ready to roll. It was almost as if they were a band playing at a local pub and taking requests. During the last spin, a lady named Chelsea, went up on-stage and Costello gave her a look like he knew what song the wheel was going to land. It hit "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea to the audience's approval.

Set closer "(What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding" included an appearance by Costello's wife and musician Diana Krall. The thunderous version of the song had fans jumping up and down in their seats. Whoever wasn't doing that was dancing in the packed Wiltern aisles.

Critical Bias: More groups should have the balls to challenge themselves in the way Costello did. It was fun and kept the audience involved throughout the night. Then again, most groups don't have 30 albums to cull material from.The Crowd: OG hipsters, much like the singer himself.

Elvis Costello and The Imposters The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA April 17, 2012

The Revolver Tour.

An excellent, long show. EC voice was in fine voice. The "Happy" spin and final encore were fantastic. Show could have perhaps been better with a few less covers, and the end of the main set sort of lacked a big finish. Anyway, still great. EC often ignored the spin and moved the wheel to something he wanted to play. Interesting special guests. Vanessa Paradis sang parts of Alison in French. La Marisoul sang parts of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood in Spanish. Excellent recording. Samples below. Elvis is still king.

Taped and mastered by JB. Please don't sell. Please DO NOT convert to lossy format and upload anywhere. If you upload this show on another site, include all the text info above, especially the NO LOSSY part, but please do not upload this to any site that has anything to do with Lossy formats.

The “return of the return of the return” of his grand theatrical conceit wows once more, with help from the Bangles and Vanessa Paradis, and sealed with a piano-pounding kiss from Diana Krall.

These singular gigs ought to come with a caveat: only verifiable Elvis Costello junkies allowed.

The ability to purchase tickets for his stellar and often star-studded Spectacular Spinning Songbook shows – an encore performance of which once again wowed at the Wiltern Tuesday night after initially impressing at that L.A. venue last May – should come password-protected, and the only way to gain access is to name at least a dozen songs that aren’t “Alison,” “Pump It Up” and “Radio, Radio.”

If you aren’t apt to fully appreciate the unpredictable rarity on display, not to mention the astonishing breadth of material Costello can call up at will, you shouldn’t be allowed to attend.

I don’t doubt that there were many well-versed acolytes in the house, though their enthusiasm level sure took a while to register. Even during a raucous second encore – leading with the verbal barrage of “Beyond Belief,” then a ripping run through “You Belong to Me” (only “Lipstick Vogue” was faster), another torrential reading of “Tokyo Storm Warning” and a finale of “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding” with help from the Bangles and Costello’s wife Diana Krall (looking like Aimee Mann in dark shades) laying down some serious Leon Russell licks – you could glance about and see entire sections seated and only somewhat engaged, as if admiring a new ballet they can’t interpret.

Around me, you could sort the hardcore from the clueless in an instant. When the lights dimmed at 8:15, the older woman two seats to my life, who I suspect was only a tag-along industry wife, proceeded to play with her iPhone for 20 minutes, then promptly fell asleep, head-lolling and everything. And I was (pardon the brag) about six rows from the stage. Embarrassing. Meanwhile, a gaggle of loudmouths behind me, who seemed to take up an entire row, couldn’t shut up for more than a verse and a chorus at any point that didn’t involve an easily identifiable classic – of which there were maybe a half-dozen amid a 30-song set.

If I were Costello – and this were a perfectly just world – I’d administer entrance exams at the door, issuing refunds to those who know nothing, then offer a wait-list line of true fans the chance to get in. Arrogant? Probably, but Napoleon Solo (his MC alter ego) would undoubtedly find a way to pull it off charmingly.

Consequently, I’m writing this follow-up piece strictly for the Costello crazies like myself. If you’re unaware of the show’s conceit, go here to read about its 1986 germination and the marvelous revival of it last year. But in a nutshell, it’s like this: There’s a giant carnival wheel stage-left, and at several points in the 2½-hour show, audience members (all but one of them female) are brought up to give it a whirl.

Whatever it lands on – or whichever wedge our host nudges it toward – that’s what gets played. The spinner then gets to watch either from the comfort of a barstool next to Steve Nieve (a versatile keys man with few rivals) or whilst dancing away inside a go-go cage.

It’s a hoot, yes, and Costello – in a variety of hats and a light gray plaid suit that turned dark with sweat by the end of the show – brings the same performance aplomb to it that he did his television series Spectacle.

Here he roamed the aisles singing Randy Newman’s “I’ve Been Wrong Before,” seeking out another lucky lady to take a spin. He tossed in all manner of aside references, just to keep the audience (and seemingly his band the Imposters) guessing as to where he’d head next. He cracked thorny jokes: “As you can see,” pointing to an old portable boob-tube at stage-right permanently left on UHF snow, “we have the TV tuned to Fox News. There’s not a word of Mr. Hannity that I want to miss.”

And he told highly amusing tales of unusual circumstances, like the time years ago when he first met Johnny Cash, who had become his pal Nick Lowe’s father-in-law, though Costello admitted his memory of events in 1978-79 are “a little foggy back there, because I was trying to rid the world of alcohol by drinking it all.” (For fun, they all cut a record in a “four-story Victorian pile” in Shepherds Bush – “and it was bloody terrible.”)

Or how about the time, not so long ago, when Costello found himself at a Boston gala, fairly terrified to be playing Chuck Berry’s “No Particular Place to Go” in front of the author, in a different time signature (a rapid waltz instead of 4/4), and with Chuck worshiper Keith Richards watching in the wings? No pressure there, although, given the version he played Tuesday night, he needn’t have worried; it was a rich interpretation that amped up the feel à la Dylan ’66 without dampening the impact of those playful rhymes.

He also brought along an additional “show business marvel”: The Hammer of Songs. With that, rather than indulge another spin, the invited guest gets to pound a weight, and if it rises high enough to hit the bell, she can pick any song off the wheel. Our hammerer nailed it, then selected “Everyday I Write the Book,” which benefited greatly from hearty harmonic interplay with bassist Davey Faragher. But seeing as they did that one last time at the Wiltern, I’d have picked “Human Hands,” or “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror,” or “This Wheel’s on Fire” (whether that meant we’d hear the Band tune or a batch of fire-related tunes) …

No, wait, I definitely would have picked “Imperial Chocolate” just to find out what that was. Pete Larsen looked it up for me: Last year in NYC that wedge produced two from Imperial Bedroom, “Shabby Doll” and “Beyond Belief,” plus the ever-popular sinister grind of “I Want You” from Blood and Chocolate.

Ah well, we rabid die-hards got an incredible old-school fix anyway: When the wheel landed on a wedge labeled “Happy,” which I assumed would be his kickoff cut from last year, “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” Costello instead launched into not one but four songs from 1980’s soul-pop pastiche Get Happy!!, the most brilliantly pun-filled assortment in his deep catalog. In order: the Sam & Dave gem “I Can’t Stand Up for Falling Down,” followed by charging takes on “High Fidelity” and “5ive Gears in Reverse” and a roaring finish with “King Horse.” So ebullient, you could see big smiles shared between Nieve and mighty, rock-steady drummer Pete Thomas.

Then there was his rethinking of the Beatles’ “Please Please Me,” treated to a “Be My Baby” feel … a robust rendition of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” with verses in Spanish from Chilean singer Marisol, the end of it sped-up to the Animals’ original jaunty pace … and later another guest, Johnny Depp’s paramour Vanessa Paradis, a recording artist in her own right (with Nieve as bandleader), who joined Costello for “Alison” (the “my aim is true” bit in French) and a wonderful version of the Zombies’ “This Will Be Our Year.”

Most captivating of all, however, was a take on Jesse Winchester’s Job-like lament “Quiet About It” (for an ailing friend) and, to start the first encore, two piano-and-voice pieces, the sorrowful Costello/Bacharach composition “I Still Have That Other Girl” followed by a reworked “Talking in the Dark.”

Not to sound uppity, but if you’ve read this far and aren’t actually a Costello fan, my guess is you don’t know half of what I’m talking about. That’s not to say you wouldn’t have enjoyed it to the hilt had you been there (and paid attention). But maybe you’d agree that uncommon shows like these – no one but no one attempts anything like this – really ought to be left to us superfans.

As I wrote that last line, it was announced: Dick Clark is dead of a heart attack at 82. Talk about an icon – pop culture, let alone rock ’n’ roll, never would have been the same without him. Can’t help but wonder what Costello might dedicate to him tomorrow night in Ontario (Canada, not California). Rest in peace.

On Tuesday night Elvis Costello returned to Los Angeles, a little less than a year after his successful run of "Spinning Songbook" shows at the Wiltern Theater. Aside from the song selection, not much has changed in the way of presentation: caged go-go dancers, audience participation (overwhelmingly female) and a grandiose, carnival wheel presented a unique and varied alternative to the traditional setlist approach. Costello and his longtime backing band, The Imposters, still have plenty of energy left to give as evidenced by the marathon-like, two and a half hour set.

Although decades removed from his greatest period of cultural relevance, Costello doesn't fall into the same conventional traps as many of his ageing peers. To begin with, his band has no auxiliary musicians and retains two out of the three members of his original 1977 Attractions lineup -- drummer Pete Thomas and keyboardist Steve Nieve. The group haphazardly navigates its catalogue with a particular irreverence for "classic" tracks or hit singles. Aside from his definitive rendering of Nick Lowe's (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," no song seems sacred enough to merit required performance status.

Early on, Costello and co. delivered a lengthy rendition of "Watching The Detectives," stretching its lilting dub rhythms into a rambling jam session. As was the case for many songs, the group expanded upon a concise framework and left Costello room for banter and repetition. "Riot Act" was an early highlight, capitalizing on the sinister verses with a truly epic release at the chorus section accented by Thomas' tasteful tom fills and cymbal crashes.

The spinning wheel itself, though intriguing and amusing in theory, ended up being more of a distraction to the flow of the musical program than it was worth. Individual audience members awkwardly took to the stage and, after taking part in the spinning/song selection process, were strangely required to dance in a go-go cage on the far right of the stage. To put it mildly, these dancing fans were incredibly distracting to the performances.

Throughout the evening Costello consistently tested the dynamic range of his voice, from the soulful croon of "Everyday I Write The Book," to the full-throated malice behind the Stones cover "Out of Time," Costello showcased his versatility as a singer -- an often-overlooked component of his musical skill set. He was in top form during a powerful if indulgent 15-minute reading of "So Like Candy," and sneered his way through a break-neck version of "Radio Radio."

The show ended with three separate encores, the last of which featured a raved-up rendition of "Peace, Love and Understanding" featuring Diana Krall on piano and Debbi and Vicki Peterson of The Bangles contributing harmony vocals. Overall the concert was a fun, if not transcendent, romp through a truly intriguing body of work.

E.C. and the Imposters would like to thank Marisol of L.A. band, La Santa Cecilia for lending her wonderful voice to "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" during our return to The Wiltern Theatre with the "Spectacular Spinning Songbook".

The show was also lit up by the appearance of our friend, Vanessa Paradis, trading lines on "Alison" in French, singing harmony on "Out Of Time" and taking the lead on a lovely song originally recorded by The Zombies, "This Will Be Our Year".

It was a gas to share the stage with you both.

As if we were not already fortunate sons, our pals, Vicki and Debbie Peterson of The Bangles appeared at closing time to once again lend their voices to "(What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding".

It was later rumoured that Mr. Costello went home with the great looking gal who was playing the killer piano during this finale number.

If you should like to hear and find out more about La Santa Cecilia go to:

Just finished listening to the bootleg. Damn, this was a fantastic show. La Marisoul's vocals add so much to Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood. Not a big fan of this cover, but here it works. I like the transition from 5ive Gears In Reverse into King Horse; definitely leaves you guessing what's next. Similarly, I like the transition from You Belong to Me into Tokyo Storm Warning. EC's voice is in fine form. The band sounds very tight.